KATHMANDU: Something unique that shows the marriage between fashion and art highlighting the strength of a woman, Wearable Art Workshop and Exhibition began at the City Hall on April 22. This is the second part of Wearable Art Workshop: Strength of Women.

“The workshop and exhibition, being held along with the Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival, is an opportunity to explore the theme of the strength of indigenous women,” said Ashmina Ranjit, visual artist and LASANAA director as well as the concept coordinator of the programme.

One can see three models walking in the City Hall grabbing the attention of movie goers as well as art and fashion lovers in the form of forest Fairy, Purity and Mother Earth. The models wear clothing where materials like lokta paper, cotton balls, jute, leaves, spices, palm leaves and bark of trees have been used.

Concept coordinator Bethany Meuleners, fashion designer and Fulbright scholar, added “Wearable art is something more than fashion and more than art. It is not mainstream fashion rather the experimentation of artist and fashion designers.”

Model Ajita Bhujel said, “It is creative, different from other fashion shows… my body is painted and designed like an artist’s canvas.”

The exhibition is the product of a workshop which was held from March 27 to April 1 where the use of fabric was not allowed.

The current workshop going is different as individual participants are involved in knitting.

“Knitting is done to show togetherness and a kind of bonding females create in a family and society,” elaborated Sushila Singh, a paint and ink artist. This time the local fashion designers and artists will explore something different through knitting.